Christ the King!

The Pastor’s Page

Today is the last day of the year, the liturgical year that is. It is Christ the King Sunday. We start anew next week as we begin the anxious wait for the coming of Jesus Christ. We relive the wait of the people of Israel, and we meditate on our own wait for Christ to come again.

However, it is on this Sunday we are reminded, once again, that Jesus Christ is Lord of all; that all things have been put under His feet, that everything, even death itself, is subject to His will.

You see, Christ isn’t King of all only when he sits on His heavenly throne, banishing all injustice, hatred, sickness, and heartache. No, Christ is King when the prayers for healing don’t result in healing. Christ is King even when the poor are still poor. Christ is King when the oppressed are still oppressed. Christ is King when the bill collector calls again, or when the power company sends the disconnect notice. Christ is King of the hospital and the nursing home.

Christ is King in the face of the Ft. Hood tragedy, and Christ was King on Friday, November 13^th, when one child of the King, L Cpl Shawn Hefner (USMC), stepped on an IED in Afghanistan just two weeks before he was scheduled to come home for the holidays. In fact, Christ is King for L Cpl Hefner in a more real way now than ever before.

It is SO easy to shout ALLELUIA when all is going well, when the unexpected financial gift helps us beat back poverty for another day, when a friend comes alongside us and banishes loneliness, or when we benefit in any unexpected way.

The challenge for most of us is to continue to give God the glory when we would really like to give Him anything but glory. We can get very angry with God. We, at least sometimes, think we deserve better than what Christ seems to dish out to us. Yet, a follower doesn’t just follow only when the road is straight and level, when the temperature is just right, when the wind is at our back. Disciples seek to follow Christ with every step of every journey. It has never been easy, and it won’t be for those families who sit down with an empty chair at the table this Thanksgiving. Hopefully, they can take comfort that their loved one sits at the Thanksgiving table of our Lord for a feast like has never been offered before.

L Cpl Hefner ended his journey home on Friday, November 20, 2009, when he was laid to rest in Hico, Texas.

Pastor Craig